


The Root

by TerrifiedAristocrat



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Hair Dyeing, M/M, Sloppy Makeouts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerrifiedAristocrat/pseuds/TerrifiedAristocrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suguro feels terrible, Rin gets to the root of the problem, Suguro introduces Rin to the joys of dyeing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Root

“Your roots are showing,”

The comment was fairly innocuous, something Rin Okumura casually said to Ryuji before class. The aria had noticed it himself- dark brown roots that framed his scalp like a crown- but hadn’t had the time to fix it.

He hated dyeing.

Really Ryuji did it as an act of rebellion against his father, and he did it because there was a really cool artist featured in a magazine that caught his eye. He liked looking cool but hated the actual process that went into dyeing.

What didn’t help was that Renzou always had helped him before.

They’d used Renzou and Konekomaru’s bathroom because the bleach and dye were really harsh on the bathroom in Ryuji’s dorm.

Ryuji lifted his head and glared coldly at Rin- the dumbass looked concerned, which pissed Ryuji off even more.

“Yeah, I haven’t gotten around ta dyein’ em,” he grumbled.

“Oh. Do you do that often?” Rin asked. Ryuji squinted.

“I guess,” he shrugged. “Every three months or so,”

“Cool!” Rin grinned. “I thought about dyeing my hair once- bright red-“

“That would look dumb,” Ryuji cut in. Rin made a face.

“It would look cool!” he shook his head.

“The red would fade out- you’d be pink in three days,” Ryuji informed Rin with the air of someone who knew what he was talking about.

“So? Shima pulled it off-“ Rin paused because he realized (too late) he’d spoken a taboo word.

No one talked about Renzou.

Luckily their teacher came in at that moment and Ryuji pretended not to see the way Konekomaru’s face fell and took on a stony appearance.

Ryuji did his best to pay attention to class but his mind was elsewhere.

There was only one solution to this. At break, Ryuji marched over by Rin and glowered down at him.

“Ya still in yer shitty old dorm?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rin replied. Ryuji hesitated- he hated asking for things more than he hated dyeing.

“Can I… borrow yer bathroom?” he grumbled. “To do my roots, I mean,”

“Oh sure,” Rin nodded. “Yukio’s out on a mission, so the dorm will be too quiet anyways,” Ryuji furrowed his brows.

“Mr. Okumura isn’ that loud,” he remarked. Rin shrugged.

“He’s loud enough,” the half demon remarked cryptically.

“…Whatever. Stick around after class,” Ryuji ordered.

“Ok.” Rin replied easily- too easily. Ryuji narrowed his eyes again but hurried off as soon as class resumed. Once class was over he was equally as quick to get out of there in order to gather supplies. Luckily by the time he came back no one was around but Rin, lounging on a desk as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Ryuji bristled a little out of habit, but settled once Rin perked like some goddman puppy.

“There you are! “ Rin remarked. “Ok let’s go-“

“Why are you so…” Ryuji trailed off, looking for the word. “Uh, willing?”

“Well, we’re friends,” Rin pointed out as if it was obvious. Ryuji made a face. “And I have no clue how you dye hair so… I was hoping to watch,” Ryuji rolled his eyes.

“ ‘snot that interesting,” he muttered. “Ya put the shit on, ya wait, ya wash it off,” Ryuji paused as Rin led him along the halls to his dorm building. Now that he thought about it… Renzou would always get the back where he couldn’t see and Ryuji always did Renzou’s back in return. A lump started forming in his throat. “Wouldja do my back?”

“Huh?” Rin led Ryuji into his dorm building, his tail automatically curling out. It was odd to watch that thing, black and flitting about like a cat’s. “What do you mean ‘do your back’?”

“The back of my head. I can’t see back there and since you’re so damn keen on-“

“Sure, “ Rin grinned again with the kind of stupid energy that made Ryuji smile but also pissed him off. It was a weird combination.

The bathroom was kind of grungy but didn’t smell bad. Ryuji pulled off his shirt and pulled out several bottles from his bag, along with a brush and some gloves. Rin watched intensely.

First Ryuji took the lid off of what looked like a condiment bottle. He gently shook two small numbered bottles, cracked them open and poured their contents into the condiment bottle.

“This is the bleach,” he explained to Rin after a moment, noticing the other male’s excessive interest.

“Like what you use to clean the cutting boards?” Rin asked.

“Sort of,” Ryuji pulled on some gloves and handed a pair to Rin. “Put these on,”

“Ok,” Rin obeyed. Ryuji shook up the bottle, found a mirror and started meticulously squirting the lumpy white mixture into his hair. Rin watched, fascinated.

“Oi Okumura. Hand me that brush,” Ryuji ordered. Rin picked it up.

“This thing?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Ryuji took it and started brushing the bleach into his hair- the stuff smelled acrid and awful. “I need you to do this in back,”

“Ok,” Rin nodded again.

“Make sure ya get down to the root. If ya mess up I’ll beat the shit outta you,” Ryuji grumbled.

“Gotcha,” Rin gave Ryuji a salute. While his voice didn’t sound very serious, the look on his face said otherwise as Ryuji handed Rin the bleach-laden brush. Rin was pretty delicate in his brushing, which was strange and charming. Ryuji didn’t know how to deal with it.

There was extra bleach in the bottle, and Rin was staring at it thoughtfully.

“So looks like you have some for next time,” Rin remarked.

“It doesn’t keep,” Ryuji shook his head. “What I don’t use I have to throw away,”

“Really? That’s wasteful,” Rin exclaimed. After a moment, he said “Do my tail.”

“What?” Ryuji snorted.

“Like the tips or something,” Rin’s tail twitched and wagged.

“…Why not, “Ryuji shrugged finally, picking up the brush. “Hold it still though,”

“Yep!” Rin grinned, grabbing his tail with both hands and holding it still as Ryuji brushed bleach onto the coarse, wavy hairs of Rin’s tail.

“It’ burns,” Rin whined.

“Yeah,” Ryuji nodded. “Got a timer?”

“Yeah, in the kitchen,” Rin nodded.

“We need to set it for 20 minutes- any longer and it’ll fry our hair,” Ryuji explained. Rin nodded and ran off, probably dripping bleach all over the place. Dumbass.

He came back with a timer and set it, sitting across from Ryuji in the bathroom. The place was very quiet, aside from the occasional dripping of the faucets and the soft, staccato ticking of the timer . Rin looked grossly happy though, which pissed Ryuji off.

“What’s with that grin on yer face?” he demanded.

“I dunno,” Rin shrugged, his tail twitching.

“If your tail keeps moving like that it’ll drip all the bleach off of it,” Ryuji commented lazily.

“I can’t help it,” Rin retorted, pouting a bit.

“Hmph,” Ryuji grumbled under his breath. The timer was noisy, and the smell of bleach was bringing back awful memories that Ryuji didn’t want to think about. There was still a hole in part of him, a hole that was made worse by the sight of red seeping through a turquoise uniform. That image had made itself home in Ryuji’s brain, the kind of thing that (along with groaning calls for meat and flesh from half-rotted monsters) didn’t want to fade from the inside of Ryuji’s eyelids.

His eyes burned. His throat constricted.

“Hey Bon are you-“

“Shut up,” Ryuji hissed between grit teeth. Rin was up in his face, with those stupid blue eyes of his boring holes into his own. “Oi. Step the fuck off.”

“Nu uh you’re-“

The timer went off and Ryuji stood quickly.

“Gotta rinse off.” He told Rin gruffly.

“Don’t fucking cop out like that,” Rin snapped. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What do you think?” Ryuji bellowed. It was as if they were back in that fucking hell hole, that place full of chemical smells and enemies and Renzou was right there and Ryuji had his bazooka heavy in his hands (don’t bring back a pretty corpse) but he fucking couldn’t he fucking couldn’t twitch his finger and pull the trigger and just stop that fucking bastard from smiling pleasantly at him and saying-

“I always hated you”

-in the same voice he’d use to flirt with girls and whine about homework and argue with his brothers and comment on how soft Ryuji’s hair was .  
Ryuji didn’t even think about finishing undressing he just angrily yanked on the knob to turn on a water spray from the wall, shoving his face into it.

“You’re a moron you know that?” Rin folded his arms and stood next to Ryuji (from what Ryuji could feel- his eyes were screwed shut and leaking tears uncontrollably as he tried to suck in air gracefully). “You didn’t even take your pants off.”

“So?” Ryuji managed to choke out, angrily scrubbing at his hair to get the bleach out. His scalp burned, which didn’t help things.

“You lectured me about relying on my friends,” Rin muttered, reaching out and running his hands through Ryuji’s hair to assist. “Gross this feels slimy-“

“No one asked yer opinion,” Ryuji muttered, a breath away from pushing Rin away from him. As sensible as that would be Rin’s fingers felt nice and just for a moment, the pain in Ryuji’s chest eased a little.

“Since when did I care about that?” Rin muttered. “Tip your head some,” he ordered, pushing on the back of Ryuji’s head. Ryuji obeyed silently, his hands dangling as Rin massaged his scalp.

“Is it rinsed out?” Ryuji asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Rin nodded. Ryuji spotted Rin’s tail out of the corner of his eye, the tips of it frosted blond and poking out through Rin’s fingers as he rinsed it off.

“Where’s your shampoo,” he asked.

“Over here,” Rin grabbed a bottle of something generic that claimed to smell like the ocean. It wasn’t a bad fragrance. Rin piled some on his hands and rubbed them together.

“What are you doing-“ Ryuji scowled as Rin attacked his scalp with shampoo-slicked fingers, aggressively working up a foam. “Oi. Be gentle that burns-“

“Yeah yeah princess,” Rin snickered, sudsing up the back of Ryuji’s neck.

“Don’t call me that,” Ryuji grumbled, snatching the shampoo bottle and angrily soaping up Rin’s hair.

“What the hell? I didn’t even dye my hair!” Rin whined.

“Che. Payback,” Ryuji exclaimed. Rin made a face and for a few moments the two angrily stood in a shower-bath, aggressively rubbing soap in each other’s hair. They seemed to realize how absurd the situation was around the same time, taking a step back. Rin snickered first, and Ryuji fell victim to a giggle fit shortly after.

“This is so stupid,” he remarked. Rin shrugged. “… I need to get conditioner,”

“I have conditioner,” Rin remarked, almost sounding offended.

“My conditioner stops the bleaching process,” Ryuji explained.

“Oh.” Ryuji carefully stepped out of the shower and over to his bag, pulling out a blue bottle and returning. His pants were soaked. He looked at Rin and realized that all of Rin’s clothes were soaked, which made his shirt cling nicely to the half demon’s chest.

“What do I have something on me?” Rin asked, checking himself carefully. Ryuji snorted and turned the water on again to rinse the shampoo out of his hair. “Hey, move over,” Rin stepped into the spray too, shoving Ryuji aside.

“Watch it,” Ryuji growled, knocking Rin over. Before long it turned into a contest for who could keep the other out of the spray the longest which made rinsing the soap out of their hair difficult but possible. It didn’t help that Rin cheated by tripping Ryuji with his tail. Ryuji got his revenge by yanking it though on his way up, which made Rin squeal and while he’d never actually verbalize it, Ryuji liked that sound an awful lot.

Once he’d rubbed the conditioner in his hair, Ryuji’s scalp started hurting. His chest still hurt a little but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it could. The ground beneath him wasn’t being sucked out from under him, even when Rin ran his fingers through Ryuji’s hair as they rinsed the conditioner out and remarked

“Wow your hair’s really soft now,”

-because he didn’t do it in the same snarky tone that Renzou did but in a soft and almost reverent way, the kind of thing that would make Ryuji blush if it was a chick doing it. He still blushed.

And Renzou never kissed him, which was probably a good thing Ryuji thought as Rin pressed his lips to his and that tail of his wrapped around his leg. He kissed Rin back and the hot water ran out, causing Rin to whine and Ryuji to jump. Having lost the mood, both exwires shuffled awkwardly out of the shower and Rin pulled out towels. Ryuji dried himself off as best he could, not really wanting to take off his clothes after having kissed Rin in the shower- it just seemed weird. He toweled his hair dry though and ran a hand through it to set it in place, thinking.

He wasn’t thinking about the kiss or Rin’s back muscles or anything like that (although those thoughts would have been a welcome distraction).

“Why did your brother shoot Renzou.” He finally spat out his question.

Rin slowly turned to Ryuji, pain and anger and frustration and guilt plain on his face like his fangs and his ears and the slit-shaped pupils that hid in lake-colored eyes.

“I don’t know,” he replied softly.

Ryuji went back to his dorm unsatisfied with and aching chest and tingling lips and bleached roots.

**Author's Note:**

> Geddit. Roots. Because Bon's roots are showing. I'm so funny.


End file.
